Truss assemblies may be used in a variety of industries, including the entertainment industry, where they are used for the construction of truss structures with lighting, cameras, displays, and speaker systems mounted thereon. Truss structures are often used in entertainment (and in particular concert) venues for this purpose. Although the present application is not limited to any one particular use, it will refer to concerts as an exemplary use.
Although some means are needed to secure lighting, sound, camera, and display equipment for concerts, not all entertainment venues are equipped with such means. Accordingly, in some cases truss assemblies are transported to the venue and a truss structure is assembled on site. Because renting of a venue is costly, it is desirable for truss structures to be assembled and disassembled quickly to minimize rental costs. Assembling such a truss structure can be large and complex job.
Truss structures are typically constructed by placing truss assemblies adjacent to one another and joining them together. In order to form a single unitary whole, each truss assembly comes equipped with a mechanism by which it may be coupled to other truss assemblies. The coupling mechanism generally comprises a set of connection openings that may be aligned as between separate truss assemblies and through which pins may be inserted to create firm connection points.
Truss assemblies are normally shipped out to venues from a central storage facility or possibly from a set of disparate storage facilities. Pins must be present at the venue in order for the truss sections to be assembled. Pins may be sourced from a different manufacturer than truss assemblies. Pins sourced separately are then packaged with the truss assemblies at the storage facilities before shipment to their final destinations. This creates a possible problem wherein there is a chance or likelihood that pins are packaged with the truss assemblies in incorrect quantities or pin packages are missing from truss assemblies altogether. Packaging errors are normally not discovered until the equipment arrives at the venue. If pins are missing, the truss assemblies cannot be assembled into a unitary structure and time is wasted while the workers wait for further pins to arrive on site.
Furthermore, during the assembly of the truss structure, workers necessarily find themselves at times working at heights atop partially completed truss structures. If a worker finds that a pin has slipped from their hands and fallen to the ground, the pin may be damaged or lost. This again may result in additional time required to replace or locate the pin.